Anonymous wrote:CBT caused more stress. Multiple advocates / lawyers and money wasted - should have saved that money for private school.

Lots of recommended not covered by insurance medical tests, specialists, etc. all for the same conclusion of “I guess it’s just the autism…”

THIS! Here too

Floortime Center

May I ask what sport? Would like to try the private lesson “on ramp” with my DS5

Therapy/Counseling. I think it made the problem worse and focused too much on the problems my kid was having and worrying about. Talking about it from different angles, discussing what could be done differently, etc. ended up putting way too much focus on negativity. I think it was slowly making my child feel like there was something intrinsically wrong with him. I don't think you can build self-esteem by just talking about it. It comes from actually doing things.

We were paying out of pocket $170 for a 45 minute session so that was $680 a month. Instead we took a break one month and I got my son private sports lessons three times a week for the month. So those 12 lessons cost 60 dollars each = $720, so for about the same as counseling which my son didn't particularly enjoy.

My son loved the private lessons, and after that month he had the confidence and some skills to join a new activity. He kept at it and paying for private lessons once or twice a week plus the cost of the team activity was still cheaper than $680. And interestingly enough the private sports coach was far more motivational and insightful than the therapist ever was about confronting fears and challenges.

The well-known private preschool that told us that DC's issues were a parenting problem. Public K told us most of the issues were age-appropriate and helped us find resources and support that led to ADHD and ASD diagnoses.

Advocate was the biggest waste of money. Also, all of the therapies for 13 years straight. Not a complete waste of money, but mostly. You don't realize until all those years later that they were somewhat useless after the first 2 to 3 years and that you could have spent that time, money and energy doing more for your child with the rest of the family.

Worst spent money was on an attorney (Kim Glassman). She took our money and was super unprepared for our case and seemed to be on the side of the school district

Best spent money has been on highly skilled private tutoring

Talk therapy. It was stressful getting anyone to the appointments and so very expensive. Deciding to finally stop looking for a good fit was a relief.

I’ll add that we briefly had one person virtually who gave us better advice than any highly paid therapist in person.

Our educational advocate was also a waste of money. She did help with identifying possible private schools but was unnecessary in the IEP side of things.

OT was also a waste, but we wouldn't have known that until doing it. We knew it wasn't going to be a perfect solution, but we thought it was worth a try. I'm not sorry I spent the money but wouldn't do it again.

Feeding therapy. Insurance paid for it, but my child hated it and it took up an afternoon for a few months. Made no impact on the amount or variety of foods my kids ate.

I'm not sure anything we paid money for was ever worth it!

Speech? He loved going, though I think he would have aged out of his language issues eventually.

He's two years ahead on math, so I got him his first ever tutor. And he absolutely loves that hour. And it means I no longer have to check in with him on math. So worth every penny!

He had PANDAS on top of everything when he was in K. And PCIT was tremendously helpful while we waited for medication treatment to start working.

Almost everything else we did.... really just brought stress to our lives and had doubtful results. Preschool OT (so stupid - and agree with the above poster that they tell you it's just SPD, and *definitely* not ASD), anxiety therapies (two different providers - so dumb), PANDAS talk therapy (so useless, and shocking in hindsight that they didn't suggest something physiological was going on, given the overnight change in behavior that I reported), social skills (my absolute least favorite - so stressful).

Our happiest, least stressful times are when we go a year without therapies. He's mostly pretty fine. He's an unusual kid. We kind of have reached the point where we just have to trust that he'll "get there" on his own time, wherever that may be.

I am lucky that my kid is not super depressed, self-hurting etc. Obviously answers could be different then.

Staying too long in [fill in the blank] therapy, OT, PT, SLPT, etc. b/c provider felt they could do more, when in reality we had hit the point of diminishing returns.

Ot was a huge waste of time but our insurance paid for it. I asked to work on scissors, handwriting, and getting dressed/tying shoes and he did none of that and all kinds of games, and other nonsense my kid didn't need.

OT for "sensory issues." Still not sure what the therapist was trying to do but it did cost a ton and stress us out!!

The educational advocate was a complete waste of money for us, too. We should have gone straight to a lawyer.